The present invention relates generally to the field of snow-plows and specifically to snow plows that are designed to be mounted to vehicles like a car or truck.
Snow-plows that are mounted to a vehicle, e.g. a snow-plow mounted to a pick up or sport utility truck, typically are designed so that much of the apparatus that is part of the snow-plow system is mounted directly and permanently to the vehicle. The equipment that remains upon the vehicle before the plow is mounted or after the plow has been removed forms a metal frame work on the front of the vehicle that increases the front end weight of the vehicle, affects the life of suspension components of the vehicle and affects the ride and steering characteristics of the vehicle.
The present invention is designed so that there is only a small mounting subframe located beneath the front bumper of the vehicle which is attached to the vehicle frame. All other components of the snow-plow system are mounted to this mounting subframe so that they can be easily and quickly removed from the vehicle. Consequently there is no substantial amount of mounting equipment covering the front end of the vehicle and little added weight permanently attached to the vehicle.
Also, the quick connecting/disconnecting structure of the present invention makes it very easy to attach or disengage the snow-plow system from the vehicle. This saves the operator of the vehicle both time and effort when installing and removing the snow-plow system.
Also, the present invention addresses the problem of light weight snow-plow moldboards. Typically snow-plow moldboards mounted to smaller vehicles (e.g. pick-up trucks) are of such a light weight that they do not effectively plow or cut through all types of snow. Hard, drifted, or icy snow such as that found in the Western United States is not easily plowed by a light plow moldboard, e.g., a plow moldboard weighing 250 pounds or less. The present invention includes a reactive controlled pressure system that places a controlled predetermined pressure upon the moldboard of the plow system so that a portion of the weight of the vehicle to which the plow system is attached is actually transferred to the bottom edge of the plow moldboard and the plow moldboard acts as a moldboard weighing 2 to 3 times its actual weight. This snow-plow system is thereby able to easily plow through snow that a light weight snow-plow normally could not plow through.
Further the invention provides the flexibility of having, in effect, both a light weight plow (which is advantageous for certain conditions such as plowing light snow on a gravel driveway) and a heavy weight plow (which is advantageous for plowing drifted and hard packed snow and for scraping hard surfaces). This flexibility is obtained by having a reactive controlled pressure system which can be activated and de-activated by means of a simple electric control switch. The controlled pressure mechanism maintains a pressure within a certain predetermined low pressure and high pressure limit with a predetermined nominal pressure within these limits.
Further, the present invention addresses the problem of lights mounted to vehicles for plowing. Typically an additional set of headlights and parking lights are mounted to the front end of a vehicle for plowing. This is because the regular headlights and parking lights of the vehicle are usually hidden behind the plow moldboard and thus are obstructed by the plow moldboard especially in the raised position. As such, the lights are rendered ineffective. Consequently it is has been the case that an additional set of lights are mounted either upon the hood or up on the front grill of the vehicle so that they project over the front edge of the plow moldboard. The problem with this procedure is that these lights and their housings in and of themselves create obstructions in the driver's field of vision due to the fact that they are mounted on the vehicle. The device of the present invention moves these lights off of the vehicle and positions them so that they shine over the top edge of the moldboard while presenting a minimal obstruction to the field of vision of the driver or operator of the vehicle. The additional lights are removed when the snow-plow is removed (as the additional lights are not needed) so that they do not present any obstruction to vision or add any weight to the vehicle.
The inventor does not know of any prior art that either teaches or discloses the unique features of the present invention.